remembering drugs

[redsage]

So I'm now taking a daily pill. Missing it is not good, but taking two is a really bad idea. Yesterday, I could not for the life of me remember if I had taken the damn thing or not. I'm pretty sure I didn't (might have something to do with why I slept 12 hours...), but the potential risks of taking two outweighed the semi-certainty of not having taken it yet. Not so good.

I've never taken a pill for an extended period of time before, only short courses of antibiotics and similar. My memory isn't that good in general, particularly not about daily type things that you sometimes remember yesterday's version of instead.

Any suggestions on how I could remember whether or not I've taken a pill on any given day? I've thought about moving the bottle, or something, but I figured I know enough other people on daily meds that some of you might have good advice.

Comments

[ourika.livejournal.com]

Here are my two ways that I've used in the past:

1. If you carry a cell phone, have an alarm set for everyday at a certain time so that it will remind you to take it.

2. Buy the weekly pill holders and put one pill in each day. Then you can go back and see if you took one that day one in that day. This type of thing: http://www.diabetesandmore.com/detail.aspx?ID=782

[rockstarbob.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest the pill holder thing too! It is charmingly Old People. :P

[ourika.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, the first time I needed one of those I was 21 years old. I guess that I aged faster than some ;-)

[rockstarbob.livejournal.com]

Ha, me too. I'm right there with you. :P

[ourika.livejournal.com]

Yeah. They're handy, useful things, though. Granted, I started with the next step up which is 4 boxes for each day!

[stormmonkey.livejournal.com]

Weekly or monthly pill holder container would be my suggestion. :)

[witchchild]

I agree.

[jocelina.livejournal.com]

I fourth the weekly pill holder idea. :)

I use one for my daily multivitamin and it makes me far more likely to remember to take it.

[arethinn]

Weekly pill holder (even improvised -- it's fairly easy to subtract from 7 and see whether you have taken as may pills as there have been days in the week, yet) worked for my mom with the four (!) different pills she had to take at different times and in different amounts every day after her back incident in March.

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

The daily pill container is the ONLY thing that's ever worked consistently for me. I've tried using a PalmOS program that bugs me until I've taken my meds, and allows me to record if I'm unable to take that dose for some reason, but I forget/ignore it as often as not.

My live-in SO and I have also taken to automatically telling the other person when one of us has taken any pills, even ibuprofen. That way if one of us forgets whether or not we took our daily pills or just took some ibuprofen, the other (usually) recalls having heard us say something recently.

[enotsola]

I should try this pill container thingy myself. I've almost gotten into the habit of taking mine as necessary. But not quite.

although you have to remember to reload it.....

[bdot.livejournal.com]

my bf uses one of those daily pill containers you can buy in your local pharmacy. he takes multiple pills each day, some in the am and some the pm and he finds this helpful...almost necessary.

[toymaker.livejournal.com]

The pill container is a great idea. I also like having a calander somewhere that you make notes in that you took your pills or not.

[dangerpudding.livejournal.com]

I use a couple of things -

1) pill boxes. I started (cause I was doing 1 set of pills/day) with the week kind, then moved to the 1week/4pills/day ones, but filled them for a month. Now I use one of those for my 4 sets of pills/day. For that, I like the one I have with removable day boxes, so I can drop it in my purse. Target has really nifty pill boxes. This also helps me to notice when I need a refill ahead of time (my refills are all over the place, timewise, so.. )

2) Alarms. I need to reset mine to fit my pills 4x/day, but I've got my morning meds alarm in my palm and I have to dismiss it before I can do anything else. So, I usually notice the first time I pick it up if I haven't remembered before.

If you are usually home when you take your pills, maybe a calendar that you write on/stick a sticker to, move a magnet from day to day on?

[pebele.livejournal.com]

pill boxes are a must for me. I take 5 pills daily, and I take am and pm pills.

the pill box allows me to tell at a glance if I have taken my meds.

[atrophying]

I've got one of those mammoth granny pill boxes. I pop off each day and put it in my pocket. It works some days better than others. =)

I also have each particular medication or dosage scheduled so it's linked to an event. My morning pill I take as soon as I get up, after going to the bathroom. My evening pill I take with dinner. My bedtime pills are taken right before I turn out the lights. It means that at least 20 days out of the month I remember to take them. Weekends are a little tougher because I don't have the same routine, but most of the times Huxley or a friend or family member reminds me to take them.

[kalieris.livejournal.com]

My son and I both take daily meds and for years we each had one of these. I use each compartment to represent one day, so we loaded them up a month at a time. I stopped using mine but am going to go back to it b/c I'm starting to lose track again of what I've taken and when. Gah.

[hel]

Weekly/Monthly pill holder, ftw.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

I make taking my daily meds part of my morning routine. It's part of the brush teeth/take shower/etc routine so it's pretty fluent. Having the birth control packet with marked days helps too (I take them all at the same time).

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I've managed to never user the pill box. I do morning pills as part of my morning routine...and as of Tuesday night, I no longer have an evening pill routine. It gets my teeth brushed very regularly, too.

[avant-garden1.livejournal.com]

I don't know what I'd do without a pillbox. I even use one for my dog now that she's taking cancer medications. They're very cheap and you can find them at grocery stores, discount stores, etc.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

I second making it be tied to something you already do as a routine. For example, the last time I was taking something daily (pain med), I took with with lunch, or as part of getting up, etc. So, what things are already firm habits in your day? Tie to to one of those.

I never used a pill box because I associate them with age or illness, and wasn't into that for myself.

[espiritkat.livejournal.com]

Pill holder. Definitely. You could probably find ones that are groovier than the common drug store finds. 9 out of 10 geriatrics & pill-poppin druggies concur...weekly pill holder is the way to go. Paint it, color in with fun discordian symbols.

[lysandra.livejournal.com]

Tape pills to a calendar, one per square.
Tack to wall by bed( or somewhere you will always see at a certain time of day).

[divineseduction.livejournal.com]

Pill box and/or reminder of some sort (cell phone (what I do) or computer, or whatever you are likely to be near when it matters).
Pill box can vary depending on many things, one of the main (for me) would be if it needs to be easily tossed in a purse/pocket and small. Otherwise, if you don't like the generic pill boxes (though fantastically useful), you could pick up little boxes or containers of various sorts at thrift shops and use those. Altoids generally has mini-altoid boxes, or those mini-mints containers that might work nicely.

[rebeccadahling.livejournal.com]

I loves me the pill holders...this also ensures that I take my vitamins...Fish Oil, Multi V, Cranberry Extract, and Iron.

huzzah.

[princeofwands.livejournal.com]

After trying pillboxes, notes, prominently placed bottles, etc - I found that I just couldn't succeed in remembering to take the damned things. I could easily solution my way around not doubling up, but failing to skip was hard.

I took the technological solution approach. I had my pda assert a persistent nagging reminder (alarm) that carried both a reminder-alarm component and a task-completed checkbox. That way if I somehow accidentally dismissed the alarm I still had the reminder of the uncompleted task. Also had to work a policy that I would not take my pills if I couldn't mark the task complete. (and then a policy to keep a paper backup (post-it on the bottle that I'd taken this day's and owed myself a checkmark).

Boy wasn't that complicated.

[faerieloch.livejournal.com]

Mine has a sticker with the day on it that I put at the top of the pill packet. It sits on the bathroom counter by my q-tips. That way, when I get out of the shower or go to the bathroom in the morning, I go "hey! There they are!" and take one. Having the sticker means I can also check later to see if I remembered. For me, it really works to have it tied to a morning routine (bathroom/shower) because that makes it much harder to forget. When I travel, it goes in my bathroom caddy.

[artistic-chaos.livejournal.com]

I take pills three times a day. After several incidents just like yours, I developed a system.

I have an alarm set on my cell phone for the afternoon and evening pills. I refuse to turn it off until I've taken my pill, even if it means snoozing a bunch of times. Alternatively, I can reset it for half an hour or an hour later if I have to. If I turn it off thinking I'll take the pill in a few minutes, I'll probably forget, and then not be able to figure out if I took it or not.

Also, I have a pill container in my purse. I put two days worth of drugs in at a time. I can look in any given compartment and know if I've taken something or not based on the amount in there.

I assume you're taking it in the morning? If not, use an alarm on your cell. If so, is there any morning routine you don't stray from? Cause then you can attach it to that.

[plantgirl.livejournal.com]

I'll continue the theme - the only way I remember if I've taken my daily meds is by using a pill box. I use the same box jeni uses. The times I flake and don't refill it right away at the end of the week, those are the times I screw up my meds. I also carry 1.5 - 2.0 days worth of pills in a container in my purse. That way if I forget to pop off that days box and carry it with me if I'm not going to be home, or if I end up staying somewhere unexpectedly, I still have access to the correct dosages.

I take my morning meds first thing when I wake up. (I had to train my stomach to cope with that). The evening meds are trickier, as I'm often in different places. I try to take them with dinner, or as soon thereafter as I remember.

I'm lucky, though, that there are no severe consequences for missing a single dose of my medication.

[slit.livejournal.com]

I put my allergy stuff next to my computer, and take it the first time I check my e-mail in the morning.

[geminigirl]

Depends on your routine. For my thryorid meds, I count them out for the week on Saturday afternoon, and keep a weekly pillbox right next to my bed. I tend to wake up, take the thyroid pill and go back to sleep for about an hour. My alarm goes off at the same time each day seven days a week, whether I go back to sleep after it or not.

For my vitamins, which I prefer to take at bedtime, I keep them in the bathroom, next to the sink. I take them when I brush my teeth, before I go to bed at night.

For my metformin, which needs to be taken three times a day with food, it's not as difficult to remember because I just take it with meals. I keep a small pill case in my purse, with one or two in it, in case I'm out when I eat a meal.